EMILY CHAN ENHANCING ACCESSIBILITY: AN OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE AVAILABILITY, NAVIGABILITY AND UNDERSTANDABILITY OF LEGISLATION Submitted for the LLB (Honours) Degree Faculty of Law Victoria University of Wellington 2018 2 Enhancing Accessibility: An Objective Assessment of the Availability, Navigability and Understandability of Legislation Abstract Accessibility of legislation in New Zealand has been widely impacted since the establishment of the New Zealand Legislation website, which allows free access to primary legislation and some secondary legislation. This paper explores the three factors that are included within the umbrella term of accessibility: availability of legislation, navigability of legislation and understandability of legislation. Availability of legislation is examined through the provision of primary and secondary legislation and the impact of the Legislation Bill on the provision of secondary legislation. Navigability of legislation is examined through the process of finding amendments on the New Zealand Legislation website within the particular piece of legislation. Finally, understandability is studied in terms of readability and whether objectively, legislation has become easier to read from 1841-2018. A series of readability tests have been conducted over five different time periods where significant reprints occurred in New Zealand in order to establish trends and determine whether there has been an improvement in readability over time. Key words: “Accessibility of legislation” “Availability of legislation” “Navigability of legislation” “Understandability of legislation” “Readability tests” 3 Enhancing Accessibility: An Objective Assessment of the Availability, Navigability and Understandability of Legislation Table of Contents I Introduction ............................................................................................................ 5 II Importance of Accessibility of Legislation ............................................................. 5 III Availability of Legislation ...................................................................................... 6 A Availability of Secondary Legislation ................................................................. 7 1 Legislation Bill: New Zealand’s Steps to Address Secondary Legislation Availability ............................................................................................................. 9 IV Navigability of Legislation ................................................................................... 10 A Navigability of Amendments on the New Zealand Legislation Website ........... 11 B Revision and Consolidation of Legislation ....................................................... 16 1 Potential Issues with Revision of Legislation ................................................ 17 2 Parliamentary Counsel Office Revision Programme for 2018-2020 ............ 18 V Understandability of Legislation ......................................................................... 19 A Use of Plain Language ...................................................................................... 20 1 Factors Which Assist Plain Language .......................................................... 21 B Readability Tests of Legislation ........................................................................ 24 C Process for Undertaking Readability Assessments ........................................... 25 D Ideal Readability Test Scores ............................................................................ 26 E Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017 ......................................................... 29 F Readability Testing ........................................................................................... 34 1 Legislation Reprints in 1841-1908 ................................................................ 34 2 Legislation Revision and Reprints in 1909-1931 .......................................... 37 3 Legislation Reprints in 1932-1957 ................................................................ 40 4 Legislation Reprints in 1958-1999 ................................................................ 43 5 Legislation Reprints in 2000-2018 ................................................................ 46 6 Conclusions from Readability Testing of Effect on Understandability ......... 48 VI Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 53 VII Appendix A ........................................................................................................ 55 A Search Terms for Legislation Used for Readability Test .................................. 55 1 1841-1908 ...................................................................................................... 55 2 1909-1931 ...................................................................................................... 56 3 1932-1957 ...................................................................................................... 57 4 1958-1999 ...................................................................................................... 58 5 2000-2018 ...................................................................................................... 59 VIII Appendix B ........................................................................................................ 60 B Description of Readability Tests Used .............................................................. 60 4 Enhancing Accessibility: An Objective Assessment of the Availability, Navigability and Understandability of Legislation IX Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 63 A Legislation Used for Readability Tests ............................................................. 63 1 1841-1908 ...................................................................................................... 63 2 1909-1931 ...................................................................................................... 63 3 1932-1957 ...................................................................................................... 63 4 1958-1999 ...................................................................................................... 64 5 2000-2018 ...................................................................................................... 64 B Cases ................................................................................................................. 65 1 New Zealand .................................................................................................. 65 2 Australia ........................................................................................................ 65 3 England and Wales ........................................................................................ 65 C Legislation ......................................................................................................... 65 1 New Zealand .................................................................................................. 65 2 England and Wales ........................................................................................ 66 D Books ................................................................................................................. 66 E Journal Articles ................................................................................................. 66 F Parliamentary and Government Materials ....................................................... 67 G Reports .............................................................................................................. 67 H Dissertations .................................................................................................. 67 I Internet Sources ................................................................................................ 67 Word count ............................................................................................................... 69 5 Enhancing Accessibility: An Objective Assessment of the Availability, Navigability and Understandability of Legislation I Introduction Accessibility is a critical aspect of New Zealand legislation. Citizens must be able to obtain, find and understand the law as it applies to them in order to be able to observe the obligations asked of them. Many legislative reforms have been aimed at improving the accessibility of the law to the average New Zealand citizen. However, these legislative reforms beg the question of whether they are sufficient to make the law as accessible as possible. This paper explores three aspects of access to legislation with a view towards answering whether accessibility has been maximised. The first aspect is availability, which involves provision to the public, and especially to users, of legislation. The second aspect is navigability, which involves users being able to find the law they wish without unnecessary difficulty. The third aspect is understandability, which involves the law, once found, being readily comprehensible to the user.1 Part II sets out why access to legislation is important in New Zealand’s governmental system, which seeks to uphold the rule of law. Part III delves into the availability of legislation in New Zealand. Part IV examines the navigability of legislation, particularly in its electronic form. Part V assesses the understandability of primary legislation in the light of the